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Source Description
Harvard archaeologists excavated the eight ornaments in this case from several burials at Sitio Conte, a cemetery famous for its lavish graves of powerful chieftains. The young man buried in Grave 26 was such a chief. His status was stunningly memorialized by 21 human companions and 475 objects, many of them personal ornaments made of gold, including the large chest plaque (no. 2) and the rod-shaped ear ornament (no. 3) shown here. The creature on the chest plaque, found close to the chief’s body, has reptile claws and perhaps the head crest of an iguana. Its meaning is unknown but perhaps, as in later periods, reptilian imagery and the warm gleam of gold linked rulers with the sun’s creative force.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
135161
label
Ear Spool
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
135161
contentType
object
title
Ear Spool
description
Harvard archaeologists excavated the eight ornaments in this case from several burials at Sitio Conte, a cemetery famous for its lavish graves of powerful chieftains. The young man buried in Grave 26 was such a chief. His status was stunningly memorialized by 21 human companions and 475 objects, many of them personal ornaments made of gold, including the large chest plaque (no. 2) and the rod-shaped ear ornament (no. 3) shown here. The creature on the chest plaque, found close to the chief’s body, has reptile claws and perhaps the head crest of an iguana. Its meaning is unknown but perhaps, as in later periods, reptilian imagery and the warm gleam of gold linked rulers with the sun’s creative force.
date
c. 400–900
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60780064
genreSpecific
Metalwork
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Diameter: 3.1 cm (1 1/4 in.); Overall: 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in.)
cul
Panama, Conte style, 5th - 10th century
accession
1958.191
Source extras
tec
hammered gold
tombstone
Ear Spool, c. 400–900. Panama, Conte style, 5th - 10th century. Hammered gold; diameter: 3.1 cm (1 1/4 in.); overall: 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Roberta Holden Bole Fund, 1958.191
collection
AA - Intermediate Region
citations
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 336
creditline
Roberta Holden Bole Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:54:45.141000
sourceId
135161
dept
Art of the Americas
coll
AA - Intermediate Region
med
hammered gold
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
4dff57c83e9ff61e